Ron Main’s Land-Speed Shrine

In 2007, veteran land-speed racer Ron Main bought a new home. His previous place was a sprawling, 5,000-square-foot tribute to the '50s, and it was time to downsize. Ron had to break his habit of never throwing anything away and moved only his personal favorites from his collection into the 24x40 garage he built at his new abode. The plan was for the garage to be large enough to house Flatfire, Ron's record-breaking, flathead-powered streamliner that's the fastest flathead Ford on Earth with a record of 302.674 mph, and the multiple-record-holding Poteet & Main Speed Demon, the world's fastest piston car at 439 mph. Fitting the two of them in one garage meant getting rid of a whole lot of pedal cars and '50s memorabilia, but Ron kept all of his land-speed goodies, including three of his record-breaking Dick Landy Industries flatheads, copies of every Bonneville program ever printed, and the bulk of his movie poster collection.

Ron started collecting movie posters in the early '80s, before the '50s retro craze really took off. This was before eBay, so his purchases came from poster shows that were held for movie memorabilia collectors. Collecting was big then, but it still hadn't hit the '50s B movies about hot rods, so while collectors were all scrambling for anything James Dean or Marilyn Monroe, Ron scooped up the posters he was interested in for mere peanuts. Now the large, three-sheet posters line the entire 40-foot back wall of his garage. His favorites are pristine original lithographs of Dragstrip Girls, Hot Rod (1950), Dragstrip Riot, Hot Rod Gang, and Hot Rod Girl. While Ron has also collected the actual 16mm and 35mm films, he's most interested in the poster artwork. He admits, "The poster is the sizzle of the steak. The movie usually didn't live up to the poster."